Forest Prairie Edge

by Merle Massie

  40 Ibid. See also SAB, R-183, I.222, J. Hardouin General Report 15 April 1921.

  41 LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766, File 27107-4 Pt. 1. G.A. Crowley to Department of the Interior 20 April 1925. As the letter was primarily another call to open all or part of the Little Red River Reserve to homesteading, the letter was forwarded to the Department of Indian Affairs.

  42 Hayes, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency.

  43 For an overview of the creation of the Sturgeon River Forest Reserve, see Chapter 3.

  44 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1922. Report of the Director of Forestry, R.H. Campbell, p. 139.

  45 The Forestry Department laid out resort areas at Clear Lake in Manitoba and at points in British Columbia in the early 1920s; similar work was carried out in Saskatchewan between 1922 and 1925.

  46 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1926. C. MacFadyen, District Forest Inspector, Dominion Forests in Saskatchewan, 75–8; E.H. Finlayson, Director of Forestry, Report for 1926, 69.

  47 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report, Forestry Report, 1922, 156.

  48 Forestry Report, 1922, 156.

  49 To understand the rise of motor tourism in North America, see Hyde, “From Stagecoach to Packard Twin Six”; Dawson, “Taking the ‘D’ Out of Depression”; Apostle, “Canada, Vacations Unlimited”; Rothman, Devil’s Bargains; Urry, Tourist Gaze; Louter, Windshield Wilderness; Sutter, Driven Wild. An excellent article that is a good comparison to the north Prince Albert region is Shapiro, “Up North on Vacation.”

  50 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report, 1922. Report of the Commissioner J.B. Harkin, Canadian National Parks.

  51 Shapiro, “Up North on Vacation,” 8.

  52 See Sandwell, “Notes toward a history of rural Canada,” in Parkins and Reed, eds., Social Transformation in Rural Canada.

  53 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1924, Forestry Division. See report of H.I. Stevenson, District Forest Inspector for Manitoba report, 97.

  54 Bumsted, Peoples of Canada, 142.

  55 The Department of the Interior was largely responsible for tourism literature on a national level. The National Resources Intelligence Service compiled and created tourist information for both the National Parks and Forestry Branch. See Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report 1926, 23–5. The Department of the Interior annual reports are valuable resources for tourism historians, as they chart the change from railroad to car tourism, and report visitors by country of origin. By the end of the 1920s, the Department of the Interior reported that Canadians were more inclined to use cars, but foreign visitors often saw the country via train travel, even though visitors could cheaply bring their own cars to Canada by boat.

  56 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1928. Report of the Commissioner, J.B. Harkin, Canadian National Parks.

  57 See table, “Urban and Rural Population of Saskatchewan,” in Waiser, Saskatchewan, 498.

  58 See Saskatchewan, Sessional Papers, 1925. Speech delivered by Mr. T.C. Davis, MLA Prince Albert in the Debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, 7 December 1925.

  59 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1926. Report of Charles Stewart, Minister of the Interior, Ottawa 1925–1926.

  60 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 23 July 1925.

  61 The Forestry Department had five resorts within three forest reserves in Manitoba. The department also had a new resort subdivision at Fish Lakes in the Moose Mountain forest reserve in Saskatchewan, opened in 1923. This new subdivision was an expansion to an already existing resort, now known as Kenosee.

  62 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report, 1926. H.I. Stevenson, District Forest Inspector for Manitoba, Dominion Forests of Manitoba report, 1925–1926, 75.

  63 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 4 July 1925.

  64 It was popular: by 1929, 17,000 visitors registered annually, far more than the 10,000 or so who journeyed north to the new national park. The area was turned over to the Saskatchewan provincial government in 1930 with the transfer of all remaining Crown land. Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1922, Report of the Commissioner J.B. Harkin, Canadian National Parks, 100. For yearly reports, see the Annual Reports of the Canadian Parks Branch, 1922–1930. See also LAC, “Vidal’s Point Park, History and Establishment”, micro reel T-11266. For a personal view and history of the park, see Archer, Lake Katepwa.

  65 See Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, Chapter 3: The Political Art of Park Making, 25–35.

  66 LAC, Parks Canada fonds, Vol. 1726. Memorandum to file, F.H. Peters to J.B. Harkin, 27 October 1926. Referenced in Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 29. Quoted at length in SAB, S-Q80, S2000-51, John Webb, unpublished document, “Forward: Legal Surveys of Prince Albert National Park, Waskesiu, Saskatchewan.”

  67 Deputy Minister to J.B. Harkin, 26 April 1926. Quoted in Webb, “Legal Surveys.”

  68 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1925–26. Report of the Hon. Charles Stewart, Deputy Minister of the Interior. The Order-in-Council creating Prince Albert National Park had just been signed, but there was no reference to it in the Department of the Interior yearly report dated to the end of fiscal year 31 March 1927.

  69 Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report 1925. Report of C. MacFadyen, District Forest Inspector, Dominion Forests in Saskatchewan, 81.

  70 Many of the advocates for National Park status were also members of local Fish and Game leagues. See Webb, “Legal Surveys”; Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground.

  71 Canada Gazette, 4 June 1927, Vol. 60, no. 49. Copy found in LAC, RG10, Volume 7766 File 27107-4 Pt. 1.

  72 See Webb, “Legal Surveys”; see also SAB, Post-1930 settlement files, R 2004-220 S43.

  73 Harris, A Masterpiece in our Midst..

  74 For maps of the original creation and later additions, see Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 18, 23, 53. See also Shortt, “A Survey of the Human History of Prince Albert National Park,” 112, 113. See also Harris, Masterpiece in Our Midst; Prince Albert Daily Herald, 11 July 1931, “New Tourist Highway to North Looms. Barnett expects 2,000 North Homestead Filings by September.”

  75 Mrs. Lydia Cook of Little Red River, Interview with Vicky Roberts, La Ronge Long Term Care Hospital, May 1997, in Roberts, ed., Historical Events of the Woodland Cree, 47.

  76 For a lyrical example of this problem, see Campbell, Halfbreed. Campbell writes about her father’s experience hunting within the park, and being sent to jail. See also Campbell, Stories of the Road Allowance People.

  77 RG 10, Volume 7766 file 27107-4 Pt.1, Bishop of Saskatchewan George Exton Lloyd to Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Duncan Scott, 11 July 1927; W. Graham, Indian Commissioner to Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, 8 July 1927; J.D. McLean, Assistant Deputy Secretary Indian Affairs to Canadian National Parks Branch, Department of the Interior, 15 July 1927.

  78 Ibid., Lloyd to Scott, 11 July 1927.

  79 Ibid., Commissioner J.B. Harkin to Duncan McLean, 21 July 1927.

  80 LAC, RG10, Vol., 7766, File 27107-4 pt.1, Secretary, Indian Affairs to W.M. Graham , 25 July 1927; W.M. Graham to Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, 5 August 1927.

  81 See ibid., Harkin to Scott, 28 February 1928; Graham to Indian Affairs, memorandum, 8 March 1928; Mackenzie to Fairchild, 30 March 1928; Harkin to Scott, 28 November 1928; Scott to Harkin, 12 December 1928; Harkin to Scott, 27 December 1928.

  82 For an overview of the boundary debates, see Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 40–1, 103.

  83 See Prince Albert Daily Herald, 2 August 1928; 9 July 1929; 5 July 1932; 21 July 1932.

  84 See Modern Voyageurs, Department of the Interior, 1931. I viewed this movie courtesy of the Prince Albert National Park Archives, Waskesiu.

 
; 85 See “James Brown and Family,” Tweedsmuir, 40–2.

  86 See Prince Albert Historical Society, Bill Smiley Archives, H series H-515 for an advertisement of the Teepee Tea Room.

  87 See file, “Handicrafts on Little Red, Montreal and Sturgeon,” LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7553, File 41, 107-1, C14818.

  88 See Tweedsmuir.

  89 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 2 August 1928.

  90 Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1928. Report of the Commissioner J.B. Harkin, National Parks of Canada, 78.

  91 For a superb look at the wilderness concept in Ontario and its impact on tourism, see Jasen, Wild Things.

  92 For a discussion of mental maps, see Gould and White, Mental Maps.

  93 Canada, Department of the Interior, Natural Resources of the Prairie Provinces. A brief compilation respecting the development of Manitoba Saskatchewan and Alberta, 1925.

  94 Prince Albert Daily Herald 2 August 1928. Inspiring Messages from the Public. Message from W.J. Patterson.

  95 Hunt, “Image as a Factor in Tourism Development,” 1–7.

  96 The “Lake Waskesiu Foxtrot” was also written in 1935. See Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report, National Parks of Canada report, “Publicity,” 1931–1936.

  97 Several books offer biographies of Grey Owl and outline his impact on Prince Albert National Park and the environmental movement. In particular, see Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, Chapter 7; Shortt, “A Survey of the Human History of Prince Albert National Park”; Ruffo, Grey Owl; Hutchinson, Grey Owl; for a critical review of Belaney’s self-identity as Indian, see Braz, “Modern Hiawatha.”

  98 Grey Owl, Pilgrims of the Wild, 281.

  99 Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 38–9.

  100 Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report, National Parks of Canada, 1929.

  101 Ibid., 26.

  102 See Department of the Interior, Annual Report, National Parks of Canada, Report of the Commissioner J.B. Harkin, 1929.

  103 Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 42.

  104 Saskatchewan, Department of the Environment, A Study of Land and Water Use at Emma and Christopher Lakes Final Report, March 1976, 44.

  105 Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report, Canada Parks Reports, 1928–1935.

  106 Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report, 1932. Prince Albert National Park report.

  107 See advertisement, Prince Albert Daily Herald, 9 July 1929.

  108 SAB, NR.1/1 Department of Natural Resources F-400-F/EL Forestry, Emma Lake, 1930, “Emma Lake Outing Club.”

  109 Saskatchewan, Department of the Environment, A Study of Land and Water Use at Emma and Christopher Lakes, March 1976, 45.

  110 Canada, Department of the Interior, Annual Report 1932, Prince Albert National Park report.

  111 See, for example, Prince Albert Daily Herald 3 July 1931; 5 August 1932; 2 July 1934.

  112 Canada, Department of the Interior Annual Report 1922, Report of Commissioner J.B. Harkin, Canadian National Parks.

  113 The Paddockwood board of trade formed in 1932, and operated throughout the Great Depression, disbanding in 1938. For its formation, see Prince Albert Daily Herald, 6 September 1932.

  114 The honorary president of this board of trade was T.C. Davis, MLA for the Prince Albert region. The honorary vice president was W.W. Whelan, once a dominion lands agent and homestead inspector. Other members included merchants, real estate agents and postmasters, as well as local farmers who operated large threshing businesses or cordwood camps.

  115 “Paddockwood: The Mixed Farming Paradise of Saskatchewan,” found in the Walter Whelan Scrapbook, Prince Albert Historical Society Bill Smiley Archives, Prince Albert.

  116 Ibid.

  117 SAB, R249, Vol. 36, Royal Commission on Immigration and Settlement (Saskatchewan), 1930. Evidence taken at Prince Albert, 26 April 1930. Testimony of Duncan McLeod.

  118 Ibid.

  119 See Cordwood and Courage, various family stories. For reference to the Muskeg Elks, see “McGowan, Sargent Hugh and Muriel,” 355.

  120 For an analysis on the concept of social capital, see Van Staveren and Knorringa, eds., Beyond Social Capital. For a Saskatchewan evaluation and case study of the concept in action, see Diaz and Nelson, “The Changing Prairie Social Landscape of Saskatchewan.”

  121 University of Saskatchewan Archives, RG 13, S.2, Year Books, Murray Point, 1936. Newspaper article, no name, no date, entitled “Kenderdine Pictures are vivid stories of western progress.”

  122 Bell, “Augustus Kenderdine,” 13–19.

  123 Excerpt from Memorial Tribute to Augustus Kenderdine, given by University of Saskatchewan President J.S. Thompson, 5 August 1947. Quoted in Morrison, “Beginnings,” 21.

  124 Bell, “Augustus Kenderdine,” 13.

  125 Ibid., 15.

  126 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 24 July 1934. “Going North as the Holiday Maker Sees.”

  127 See Prince Albert Daily Herald, 7 August 1931.

  128 For northern development in Saskatchewan post-1945, see Quiring, Battling Parish Priests, Bootleggers and Fur Sharks.

  Chapter Eight: Even the Turnips Were Edible

  1 McGowan, “Gee and Haw,” Cordwood and Courage, 634–5. For the McGowan story, see “McGowan, Sargent Hugh and Muriel,” Cordwood and Courage, 354–7.

  2 This number was conservatively calculated in Britnell, Wheat Economy, 202–3. Census material between 1930 and 1936 showed an increase of 9,438 farms in the parkland and forest zones. A further 2,000 homesteads were filed from 1935 to 1940. Britnell noted that the actual number of settlers who moved was “in excess of” 45,000 but that many of the resettlers could not be traced. The estimated number of 45,000 has been repeated by most researchers, including Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement in Northern Saskatchewan”; Powell, “Northern Settlement”; and McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement.” McDonald points to Census records which indicate that forest fringe population in 1941 (excluding Prince Albert) “exceeded 80,000, just over half of whom had migrated north during the 1930s.” R.A. Stutt produced an exhaustive study of the forest fringe in 1946 and argued that of those interviewed, nearly one-third had “migrated from the farming districts of southern Saskatchewan.” One-third was an average: in the northwest (Meadow Lake and region) one half were migrants; in the northeast (Nipawin-Carrot River area) only one quarter were prairie migrants. See Stutt, Land Settlement, 4.

  3 Paddockwood Museum. Paddockwood Pow-Wow, Diamond Jubilee edition, 1965, “Down Memory Lane.”

  4 Some of the most interesting texts include: Francis and Ganzevoort, eds., The Dirty Thirties in Prairie Canada; Gray, Men Against the Desert and The Winter Years; Thompson and Seager, Canada, 1922–1939; Struthers, No Fault of the Their Own; Grayson and Bliss, eds., Wretched of Canada. Numerous theses have been written on various aspects of the Depression in Saskatchewan, including Lawton, “Urban Relief in Saskatchewan”; Matheson, “Saskatchewan Relief Commission”; Bowen, “Forward to a Farm.” For an overview of the decade, including the Great Trek migration, see Waiser, Saskatchewan, “Nothing of Everything.” For a Great Plains interpretation of drought and dust storms, see Cunfer, On the Great Plains.

  5 Both these quotes are taken from well-known book and article titles: Broadfoot, Ten Lost Years; “Our World Stopped and We Got Off,” Chapter 1 of Gray, Winter Years.

  6 See Wood, Places of Last Resort, endcover.

  7 In particular, see Bowen, “Forward to a Farm”; Powell, “Northern Settlement”; McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement”; and Wood, Places of Last Resort. Fitzgerald also examines some of the government schemes, but not in great detail. For a general overview of land settlement policies across the northern fringe, see England, The Colonization of Western Canada and “Land Settlement in Northern Areas.”

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p; 8 See SAB, R-266, IV.40, Homestead Entries. “Saskatchewan Homestead Entries 1905 to 1943 by Land Agencies and Census Divisions.”

  9 There are numerous family histories in the Paddockwood history book, Cordwood and Courage, that explain how the family filed on the homestead land in the late 1920s but made the move north at a later date.

  10 Until 1930, immigrants from outside Saskatchewan could still take first homesteads in northern Saskatchewan.

  11 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 2 August 1928.

  12 Piper, Industrial Transformation, 81.

  13 A discussion of the Crown land transfer is found in Martin, “Dominion Lands” Policy. See also O’Bryne, “The ‘Answer to the Natural Resources Question.’”

  14 Bowen, “Forward to a Farm,” 30.

  15 See Powell, “Northern Settlement.”

  16 Bowen, “Forward to a Farm,” 235–8.

  17 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” Chapters 5 and 6.

  18 Interpretations vary regarding which years saw the greatest exodus. Some, like Fitzgerald, argue that the strongest migration years were 1932 and 1933; others suggest that northern migration peaked in 1934 and 1935. Britnell noted the highest population movement in 1931 and 1932. For an overview of this debate, see McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement,” footnote 55.

  19 See Mrs. A.W. Bailey, “The Year We Moved,” Saskatchewan History, Winter 1967. See also Fenske, Riverlore.

  20 For an example, see Western Producer, 31 January 1932, “Five Hundred Horses Die over Winter.”

  21 Mrs. A.W. Bailey, “The Year We Moved.”

  22 Russell, “Subsistence, Diversification, and Staple Orientation,” 15–28.

  23 See the recreated Bennett Buggy at the Western Development Museum, Saskatoon. Quote from Wright, Saskatchewan, 225.

  24 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 314–5.

  25 Bill Grohn, interview with Merle Massie, September 2009. Grohn went with neighbours to cut feed and to pasture horses and cattle in central Manitoba. As well, he participated in the dominion “hired hand” program where farmhands earned five dollars per month. For an overview of this program, see Danysk, “No Help for the Farm Help.”